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"I fucking hate him," Jeremy growled, sitting at the lunch table. It was his second day of band camp in a week long excursion and Jeremy was at his wits end with his roommate and section leader. He was also best friends with Trevor until sophomore year when he dated the most popular girl in the school. Then he had the audacity to come over to him afterwards like nothing happened. He'd even touch his arm or shit in a playful way, but it hurt too much and Jeremy was done. He didn't want to deal with falling for a straight guy. "I want to shove his trumpet down his throat."
"That's a little extreme man," Matt commented, pointing his shitty pizza at Jeremy. "Leave the trumpet out of it."
"Jeremy talking about his crush?" Lindsay asked, sitting down next to Matt, Michael close behind her.
"I don't like him. I hate him."
"Keep telling yourself that, buddy," Michael pat his shoulder condescendingly and Jeremy shook it off. "Everyone in the trombone section thinks you're in love. We have a betting pool."
Jeremy scowled. "Well, whoever said 'never' will win."
Michael shook his head, turning to his pizza.
Jeremy hated Trevor. He was smart and pretty and good at music. He was a freak.
Okay, Jeremy might have a small crush on Trevor. But that's why he hated him. It was easier to hate him for being so perfect than to pine over a perfect straight guy when he was, well, him. That's why he couldn't be Trevor's friend. It was easier to hate him than to have his heart broken.
Jeremy sighed and bit into the shitty pizza.
"Alright, first trumpets! We're going to work on double tonguing that high A! Seconds, work on the lick at mesure 25. Thirds, work on your tuning!" Trevor called out during the trumpet sectional. Matt and Jeremy joined Trevor, Jeremy absentmindedly strumming his fingers over the buttons.
Jeremy was getting ready to speak when a golf cart pulled up with their assistant director. "Hey, so, we've got the parts for the fourth song finally, and there is a solo part. Trevor, you want it?"
Jeremy could have sworn he saw red in that moment, biting his tongue so hard he could taste blood.
Matt grabbed the parts from their director and he drove forward slightly to where the seconds were standing.
"So, we wanna work on this new song instead...?" Trevor asked.
Jeremy turned away. "I'm going to go help the thirds on their part, section leader duties."
"But I'm section leader."
"Then get your head out of your ass so your assistant section leader doesn't have to do it all," Jeremy growled. Trevor looked hurt but Jeremy didn't have it in him to care too much as he walked over to the weaker players.
As per tradition, Wednesday night was game night for the brass section.
Jeremy smiled wide at Michael and Geoff as they walked over with their trombone cases outside the window. Gavin follows close behind with his mellophone case in hand. "Hey guys!"
"Little J!" Michael smiled, hugging him. "Ryan said he'd be here soon, he, Lindsay, and Jack have something the susophones need to work out.
Jeremy nodded just as Matt came over. "Hey, did you hear that Jeremy had a fucking meltdown today?"
Jeremy sighed. "Look, my Trevor tolerance is wearing thin. I do have to room with the guy, ya know."
Geoff rolled his eyes. "Well, whatever. I brought liquor in my trombone case, so did Michael and Gavin."
Mica cheared as she opened the window to her dorm. "Nice! Get in, before parents see me sneaking people in!"
Jeremy was the first to climb into the window, seeing the game that sat on the ground. "Oh, we're going to have fun this year," he smiled brightly. Cards Against Humanity had been smuggled in by someone.
The room was cramped, and it only got worse when Ryan, Jack, and Lindsay came, Lindsay and Jack also bearing the gift of booze. Thirty kids was a lot to fit into one room, but he was just glad they excluded the freshmen this year. There were a few tattle tales in the group, and they would have raised the count to around fifty people. But the night was fun, none the less.
Kids sat on the beds, floor, counters, everywhere there was space, some people even sitting on each other's laps. Michael hid his cards behind Gavin's back as the brit sat on him, nodding at Jeremy to judge the next round.
Jeremy picked up the card, blinking a little as he tried to read, a little too tipsy to fully read the card at first. "Blank; good to the last drop."
Cards were passed around by everyone until Jeremy finally got them all and read them off. "Dick, good to the last drop."
Jeremy put the card down and looked up at the group. "As a gay man I feel attacked."
The group laughed, Trevor just cocking his head to the side. Dear God, Jeremy didn't consider if Trevor was homophobic. He took a large swig of rum before reading the next card. "Ooh, a custom card. Gavin guzzling Michael's cum, good to the last drop!"
The group burst out laughing, Geoff wheezing so hard he started crying as he collapsed onto Jack's lap. Gavin squawked and blushed, Michael laughed evilly.
Jeremy read out the rest of the cards quickly. "Well we all know who the winner is!" Jeremy called, holding up the custom card.
"Thank you!" Trevor called, leaning over to collect the black card.
"Great, now we can add funny to the list of why you're perfect," Jeremy joked, tossing the card at Trevor, though his drunk body tossed it way too far. The group laughed, but Trevor just crinkled his eyes, almost confused? No, it must be disgust, he probably hated Jeremy.
Jeremy woke up as the drum majors ran though the halls hitting their gock block and screaming. His head hurt, his mouth was fuzzy, and the world was spinning.
Jeremy stood up quickly, running past Trevor washing his face in the bathroom sink and vomiting in the toilet violently.
Trevor turned off the sink. "So, I called the band directors this morning and called you in sick," he said, turning to look at Jeremy as he hugged the toilet like it was his dying lover. "You got pretty drunk last night, figured you would need it."
Jeremy groaned. "Weren't you drinking too?"
"Oh, I was, but you had an entire bottle of rum to yourself after doing shots with Geoff. I smoked weed instead after my first drink."
Jeremy nodded, kinda shocked. Trevor was perfect, he couldn't imagine him smoking.
"I've gotta go to breakfast roll call, try not to die, it's only Thursday and we're here until Monday."
With that, Trevor grabbed his lanyard with his name on it, grabbed his drill bag and his horn and was gone, leaving Jeremy to stay in his room.
Jeremy heard a ding on his phone a while later and he crawled himself to his bed, opening his phone.
Matt- yo, you weren't at roll call?
Jeremy- super hungover. Trevor called me in sick. Yo what happened last night?
Matt- not much. You kept spouting on about Trevor being perfect before he dragged your ass to bed.
Jeremy- oh fuck me.
Jeremy sighed, going back to bed. Fuck it was early.
Jeremy next woke up at four PM and decided to practice his horn. His stomach still hurt a little but he head was better, and if he magically was better already the directors and chaperones would be suspicious.
He played the double tongue part, played the songs over and over.
When he played the new song, he decided to play the solo, too.
The high notes were really high, but Jeremy hit them with ease. It was fast and in minor, and Jeremy put a lot of emotion into it. His anger at Trevor, his anger at himself for falling for someone so out of his league and straight.
Jeremy finished the solo, putting the horn down where the rest would be when someone coughed.
Jeremy looked behind him and saw Trevor standing there. He lifted a bag. "I got you some dinner," he said, setting it on the dorm counter. "Gourmet from the dining hall of shitty food."
"Thanks. Uh, shouldn't you be out marching until like, 8:30pm?
"It's 8:45," Trevor shrugged, gesturing to the clock above the door. Had that much time really passed? "You, uh, you should take the solo."
Jeremy rolled his eyes. "I don't need you to pass it to me out of pitty."
"It's not pitty," Trevor said, walking over to his bed and plopping on it. "Well, maybe a little self pitty, but none towards you. You're actually much better at it. I mean, did you hear how you belted those tripplets? I've been struggling to hit them and you made it look like it was nothing. You should have it."
"Yeah, right. Don't be an asshole."
"I'm not being an asshole!" Trevor almost screamed, throwing his hands up in frustration. "Why do you hate me so much?!"
"I... I don't hate you," Jeremy finally admitted, slumping. "I'm just, frustrated. You're so perfect at everything! It fucks me up."
"Why do you keep saying I'm perfect? I'm seriously far from."
Jeremy snorted. "Are you serious right now? You're funny and smart as fuck, everyone knows you got a 35 on the ACT so don't even say otherwise. You're pretty and good at music and you're straight and you dated the prettiest girl in the school."
Trevor balled his hands into fists. "Coming from you?! You're way funnier, musically a fucking prodigy, you rap, you have a motorcycle, you are the best artist at the school, and everyone fucking loves you! Plus not only is straight not a 'perfect' quality I'm not even straight!!!"
Jeremy stopped, mouth agape for a minute, before saying the first thing that came to his mind. "You're not straight?"
"No, I'm not straight! I thought that was obvious when I was flirting with you after I broke up with Rachael! I thought that's why you hated me! But now I know you're gay and I don't know what I did wrong-"
"Trevor, shut the fuck up for a second, okay?" Jeremy closed his eyes, he couldn't look at Trevor right now. He'd been an ass since January about this and it hurt Trevor and he was just misunderstanding everything. God he's and idiot.
"Misunderstanding?" Trevor asked. Fuck, he'd said that out loud.
"I, uh," Jeremy sighed, putting his head in his hands. "I might have been an asshole so you would leave me alone and I could convince myself I hate you because I had a crush on you and didn't want to get hurt because I thought you were straight and didn't like me."
"Wow, that's one hell of an assum- wait, did you say you like me?!"
Jeremy looked up, feeling extremely asinine. "Yeah, yeah that's what I said."
Trevor stared blankly at Jeremy, standing up and running his hand over his arm uncomfortably as he walked over to Jeremy's bed, plopping down on it. "So you don't hate me?"
"No, I guess I just didn't realize you were flirting. But it made me dizzy and it just, in retrospect it's obvious but I just didn't want my feelings to get worse and your flirting was making them worse." Jeremy looked up at Trevor. "Can we go back to the way things were? I miss you."
Trevor bit his lip, looking slightly bashful. "Well, uh, I would say yes, but I really wanna kiss you right now and that's not exactly a thing best friends do."
Jeremy smiled slightly, raising his hands up and holding Trevor's face. Trevor's breathing hitched and he glanced down towards Jeremy's lips before Jeremy leaned in and kissed Trevor.
Trevor responded instantly and Jeremy's mind was on fire. Just yesterday he was being a dumb asshole and now here he was, lips gliding against Trevor's, tingling down his neck from the touch. Trevor's hands went to Jeremy's waist, pulling him in closer as his tongue ran across Jeremy's bottom lip. Jeremy let him in as Trevor swung his leg around to straddle Jeremy, kiss taking a more dirty tone. They leaned back and Jeremy's head hit the wall, Trevor pulling back and laughing as Jeremy hissed in pain. Trevor's brown eyes crinkled as he laughed, shining brightly. Jeremy's heart soared.
"Kissing might not be a thing best friends do, but it could be a thing boyfriends do, if you want," Jeremy said, hand reaching up to brush through Trevor's hair.
Trevor smiled, leaning slightly into Jeremy's hand. "I would like that."
Jeremy couldn't contain his smile as he pulled Trevor back down for another kiss.